In Oxford, school snow day calls more like telemarketing

Wednesday

Mar 20, 2013 at 6:00 AMMar 20, 2013 at 4:25 PM

By Ellie Oleson CORRESPONDENT

More than snow came from the Cloud Tuesday. Many parents of Oxford Public School students received four robo-calls, 15 minutes apart, starting at 5:30 a.m., informing them that school had been canceled.

Similar multiple calls were received by some parents in Leicester.

One mother who received the calls was Oxford School Committee member Brenda A. Ennis.

“It was just a glitch in the system. We don’t expect it to happen again,” she said.

Judy Paolucci, superintendent of schools in Leicester, said, “We’ve been working with the company after some parents received as many as six phone calls.”

Public school systems in both communities use iAutoAlert from IMG Software of Framingham to alert parents to school closings or other situations.

Frank Piso, vice president of IMG, said Tuesday, “We fell short today. Corrective action has been taken. We are here for our customers and service is paramount to us.”

He said the problem was found almost immediately, but the Cloud-based technology is so fast that four calls got out before they could be stopped.

Ms. Paolucci suggested that Leicester parents who continue to have a problem might have separate listings for more than one child, might have entered multiple phone numbers in the system, or might have another simple issue.

“Just call us, and we can adjust personal settings.”

Allen W. Himmelberger, superintendent of schools in Oxford, said, “All school departments use a third-party vendor for emergency notification. Yesterday’s multiple calls were nothing we did, even though it is my voice on the notification. We talked to the vendor and it should not happen again.”

He said he remembers the days when parents would listen to the radio or watch television to see if their town’s schools were open. The bad part was that superintendents had to contact each individual radio and television station to have the cancellation or delay reported, and parents had to watch or listen for the alphabetical scroll before they could plan their day.

“Now we log on, and with a few mouse clicks and an automated phone call, the word is out.”

He added that six school days lost to snow and Superstorm Sandy are enough, and have pushed the last day of school to June 18.

“Hopefully, that’s it. We will not get any more snow days, and no one has to get any more early-morning calls.”